Doxology

Imagine stepping around roses and berry brambles, your eye catching the strawberry patch bursting with bright red fruit. For me, brushing past living things in a landscape often brings an old hymn to mind. The beauty God surrounds us with makes me want to sing to him. Roses, hollyhocks, geraniums, and petunias in particular—everyone’s grandma’s reliable garden favorites—inspire me to hum what many Christians know as “The Doxology.”

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;

Praise Him, all creatures here below;

Praise Him above, ye heav’nly host;

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. (Thomas Ken, “Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow”)

These lines ring through me as strength and comfort. They bring laser focus to my most primal thoughts of God, those truths that echo through trees and grasses and ocean mist, in birdsong and moon glow. I know why we’re still singing this doxology, why I do, anyway: it’s still vital after five decades of my singing it.

If you’re a lover of nature, you’re already attuned to its native score. Having such a song with lyrics committed to corporate (cultural) memory adds depths and facets to multiply the prisms, streams of light, and color of his glory.

Announcing his wonderfulness is a mindfulness exercise, a gratitude rite. We can sing or whistle while we work, in a jubilant voice or a shout, in an open field, mountain vista, or city street. Or we can whisper quiet adoration on our knees at waking or sleeping, with hands interlocked around the table, or with arms linked, faces tear-soaked, in remembrance. I hope you experience doxology in community, gathering with other Christ-followers. Recall the nourishing potency of its reverberations in nature and time and in your intimacy with the Lord. Remember: if we don’t praise him, the rocks will!

Go ahead: lift up your voice in worship!

Father God, continue to transform me, creating Christlikeness in me so my praises will rise to you with more depth, breadth, and earnestness. Amen.

This plan contains devotions derived from Bloom and Grow: 365 Devotions for Gardeners at Heart by Laurie V. Soileau. https://broadstreetpublishing.com/bloom-and-grow/9781424566303/